“Crap. I guess we put these on as soon as we submerge.”
“I guess so,” Trillian said, staring at the charm warily. “Let’s go. Everybody armed?”
The men each had gardening forks, along with long daggers. I had the unicorn horn and my dagger. Shade and Shimmer would be using their natural talents. And Roz held up a waterproof bag of fire- and ice bombs.
As Delilah watched from the shore, we waded into the surf. The chill hit me, even through the suit, though it was manageable. Before I had gone more than a few yards, I was waist deep, and then, on the edge of the shoal. I slid the charm over my head, reassured myself both the horn and the snail shell were firmly attached to my belt, and dove below the surface.
My first thought was to breathe, but then I realized that the charm worked by suppressing that impulse. My lungs felt silent and I thought that this must be how it felt to be a vampire. It was disconcerting, to say the least. I looked around. The water was dark, but the sun was glimmering down in areas, illuminating patches.
Shade was up ahead. He suddenly dove down and then, within seconds, a skeletal head popped up. He must have reached the end of another shoal. Shimmer followed him and the next moment, a graceful neck rose up beside Shade’s. Shimmer was beautiful, with her dragon’s muzzle and catfish-like whiskers attached to either side. Whippet-like horns curved back, gleaming like gems, above the limpid blue eyes that flashed with sparkles. She suddenly vanished, then a moment later, reappeared just as we swam to the dropoff. I wasn’t sure what to do next, but Shimmer moved aside as Shade shifted, presenting the vertebrae of his shoulders.
I knew what came next. I swam over to him and cautiously settled on the bony ridge, holding on to him tightly. The others followed suit. We were all able to fit without much of a problem. Another moment passed and then Shade began to dive, taking us with him. Shimmer followed alongside us.
We rapidly descended, then evened out. I decided to wait to bring out the shell until Shade stopped. He appeared to know where we were going. Another moment, and he settled on what appeared to be a reef. I wasn’t sure how deep we were, but thanks to the charm, I wasn’t feeling any ill effects. I took a chance and cautiously swam up, then over to Shade. He stared at me, his eyes illuminating the darkness, and once again it hit me just how odd it was to realize that my family was made up of creatures I had never dreamed I’d meet. I fumbled with the bag—not so easy given the gloves of the wetsuit—and then brought out the shell.
All around us, the water lit up and we were able to see where we were. Fresia was right, the charm was a powerful help. Flashlights wouldn’t have worked nearly so well. I turned to the reef and realized I was swimming right above the wreck of an old ship that had lodged there.
The entire outside of the ship was covered with barnacles, sea stars, and sea anemones with their long white tubular bodies and heads that blossomed like an inverted mushroom top. One type of sea star was a morning sun star, brilliant orange, with thirteen legs. There were several around. The other stars were more numerous, covering parts of the ship’s hull. With five arms and the color of faded grapes, the purple stars made me cringe. They reminded me of the banana slugs—fat and fleshy. Yet another kind of inhabitant made me more nervous. Sea urchins, a brilliant green, were latched onto several places of the ship. Their spines were sharp and could puncture wetsuits and skin alike.
Over the side, the water plunged into darkness. I paused, registering the fact that I was hearing the roar of the tidal currents ripple past. It had never dawned on me before that I could hear under the water—but I closed my eyes for a moment and realized that there was a multitude of sounds down here. And Shimmer was making her own noise, her air bubbles rising as she blew them out her nose. I had no idea how long she could last beneath the waters, but she looked comfortable enough.
I motioned for the others to join me, and they did. Shade and Shimmer stayed in their form. They couldn’t very well turn back into human form without an air breathing charm, and besides, we needed them to be our muscle should K’thbar wake up. We still didn’t know what he could do. Or what he might actually do.
I pointed to the ship, then looked at Shade. He bobbed his head up and down. Figuring this must be our destination, I held up the shell and began looking for an opening, swimming rather than trying to walk on the reef. I wasn’t sure how sturdy it was, or what it was made of, and decided it was better to avoid any sudden surprises.
The ship was old. In fact, I would put it at pre-1900 by the looks of it. Morio and Roz swam up beside me and I mimed looking for an entrance. They nodded and split off, as did Roz and Vanzir.
I realized that I was near a railing. The ship was on its side, by the looks of things. It wasn’t a big sailing ship, but it was definitely large enough to fit a crew of ten or so. Using the railing as a guide, I swam along, looking for the bow. It wasn’t long before I found it. I swam in toward the ship, and sure enough, within a couple moments, I found the entrance leading to the lower cavern. The door was gone and it looked like it had been ripped off its hinges. The wood where it had attached was splintered and raw. Holding the snail shell up, I began waving it around to attract the attention of the others. When they joined me, with Shade and Shimmer still swimming next to the boat, watching and waiting, I motioned to the door and then swam through the entrance.
The entryway led to stairs, which had become a corridor, given the ship was on its side. I swam through, holding the shell out to give me enough light to see by. I tried to avoid brushing against the sides. While I didn’t think the sea stars were poisonous, the urchins were an accident waiting to happen.
Behind me, I heard a yelp of sorts and cautiously stopped, turning to see Morio wrestling with one of the urchins. He didn’t look very happy, but as far as I knew, urchins in the Pacific Northwest weren’t venomous. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt like hell, but he shouldn’t react to any toxins the urchin might have. He pulled it off of his shoulder and tossed it to the side.
I turned back to the passage and swam until I came to what would have been the bottom of the stairs. It opened out into a rather large galley. There were doors along what was now the bottom and top, leading into other rooms. But my attention was firmly on a pale yellow orb that surrounded the table. The orb was shimmering and I realize it was composed of energy rather than crystal. On the table, inside the orb, lay a figure that looked very much like a fish with a torso and feet. We had found K’thbar.
Chapter 6
MY FIRST THOUGHT was that K’thbar couldn’t have been sleeping all that long if he was here in this ship. My second thought was, what if the orb he was in was displaced in space and the ship had settled around him? Which led to the question of whether we could actually touch him or would our hands just pass through him. He looked almost translucent.
Morio moved closer to the orb. He paused, then motioned for me to join him. As I cautiously swam over to him, I could see what he was pointing to. There, beneath the Primordial Fae, was the spirit seal. Set in a silver knotwork base, the gem was pale, pale yellow—the color of the earliest shimmer of sunrise. I could usually feel the energy emanating from the seals, but this one I couldn’t, even though I knew what it was.
I gave Morio a questioning glance and started to reach toward the orb, but he grabbed my wrist, shaking his head. At that moment, a fish swam by. Without slowing down, it swam directly into the orb. The resulting zap was enough to char the fish and send it belly-up, floating toward the ceiling of the ship.
Hmm, not good. Electricity. And the wattage had been overkill on the fish, loud and crackling. The remains looked like a block of charcoal. What the energy had done to the fish, it could surely do to us, and all the underwater breathing spells in the world wouldn’t save us from being electrocuted. Time to rethink our strategy.
We couldn’t go in after it, but we could perhaps bring K’thbar out to us. Though yet another thought drifted into my head that he might just have more
than electricity on board as a weapon. I spotted a small pebble on the floor and picked it up. Motioning for everyone to back away, I tossed the rock toward the orb and waited to see what would happen.
No zap. The rock went through and landed on the table beside K’thbar, who took no notice of it. So living things got fried, and inanimate objects could pass through. But that didn’t answer the question if we could even touch K’thbar. Would the pebble have bounced off of him, or was he corporeal—would it have just landed inside his image? Realizing that the others were waiting for my cue, I looked around and found another rock.
Trillian cocked his head to the side, giving me a shake of the head. I ignored him. If he yelled later, I could always plead that I hadn’t noticed his disapproval. I aimed for K’thbar and threw, just as Vanzir seemed to realize what I was doing. He lunged forward—as best as you can lunge when you’re underwater—and grabbed hold of my arm, but he was too late. The rock already was passing through the orb and this time, my aim was dead on. The rock landed on K’thbar. Or rather, passed through him to land on the table below.
Automatically, I tried to catch my breath, but the charm prevented that and I almost sent myself careening to the side with the effort, I was so startled by not being able to breathe. Vanzir steadied me, but then let go and turned toward our target.
K’thbar apparently didn’t need to be hit in corporeal form. Apparently I was doing a damned good job of interrupting his sleep. He stirred, and it was then that I got a good look at him. K’thbar was far larger than I had originally thought. As he shifted, the orb shifted with him and what had been about a sphere ten feet in diameter abruptly expanded like a balloon, by a good three feet.
We all backed off, watching and waiting for any sign that he was awake. Maybe I had gotten lucky and just penetrated his dreams. Maybe he was just turning over for a more comfortable position. Maybe…maybe…maybe we’d better figure out what the hell our plan of attack was, because the orb grew once again, threatening to fill the room if it continued. If it expanded to fill the ship, we were dead, given the lightning display that the fish had caused. He was cutting off our exit, though. The orb stretched to include the path to the staircase passage, and there was no way to exit the ship now without going through the energy grid around the Fae.
I hurriedly swam toward one of the doors near the ceiling. It was ajar, and I pushed it open, swimming in to frantically look for a porthole, but there was none and it hit me—the quarters were below the water, in the belly of the boat. Of course there wouldn’t be portholes. I noticed that the men had scattered, and the orb was still expanding to fill the main galley.
Unable to see whether K’thbar was actually awake, or whether he still slumbered and was just having one doozy of a dream, I quickly looked around for anything that might help. I still had the shell and it gave me enough light to see by. But there wasn’t anything that remotely looked like a weapon in here. I had my dagger, though, and the horn.
As I hesitated, wondering whether I should pull out the horn now or wait, I noticed that the glowing edges of the orb were starting to penetrate the floor—or what would have been the inner wall if the ship was upright. Crap, it wasn’t done expanding. If that energy filled the chamber, I was toast. There was no way out except through the door, which was blocked by the orb’s energy.
I pulled out the horn and held it up, focusing on contacting Eriskel.
Without warning, I found myself in the central room inside the horn again. Eriskel was looking highly alarmed, and all of the Elementals were at their screens, watching me.
“I need help. I have no idea what to do, but we’re about to be a bunch of crispy critters here if we don’t nullify that damned energy.” Relieved to have a breather—I could think in here without wasting much time on the outside—I flopped in the chair opposite the jindasel. “What should I do?”
The Master of Winds spoke. “I can negate the lightning. But then he’ll wake and you’ll have a fight on your hands.”
I turned to the Lord of the Depths. “If we do that, can you help us?”
“I can help you by getting you out of the ship, so you aren’t trapped in there with him.”
I thought for a moment. We had to retrieve the spirit seal. We couldn’t chance it vanishing if the orb that was holding it near K’thbar vanished. “Can you make me immune to lightning and electricity, at least for a few moments?”
The Master of Winds arched his eyebrows. “You want to go inside the orb?”
“Just long enough to grab the spirit seal. Then I’m out of there and you can negate the orb.”
“If I give you both that immunity and then negate the energy, it will drain the horn and the others will not be able to help you except in the most rudimentary ways. Is this what you wish to do?”
I thought it over. If we just had him negate the orb, the chance of losing the spirit seal was very real. Right now, it was trapped inside along with the Primordial Fae. “Yes. Shimmer and Shade are in their dragon forms. They can fight K’thbar.”
“Be very sure. He is not at his full power while he’s in there. The orb is not a safe haven. There are reasons to keep others out—and reasons to keep someone in.”
A prison. K’thbar was imprisoned in the orb, then. Double crap because that meant that somebody had considered him a big-enough danger to lock away. But I couldn’t see any other way and I had to make a decision.
“Yes, I’m sure. If you could propel me near him, that would be wonderful.” I had never expected to connect the word wonderful with the thought of cozying up to one of the Primordial Fae, but here I was, doing just that. Sometimes, life didn’t work out quite like you expected it to. And that was usually okay, except this time, I wasn’t going to lay odds.
Eriskel gently rested his hand on my shoulder. “Mistress Camille. Be very careful. When you exit from the horn, put the horn safely away and close your eyes. The Master of Winds and the Lord of the Depths know what they have to do. You need say nothing but do not open your eyes until you hear me whisper. You will find yourself next to K’thbar and the seal. The sphere will then be negated, so shield your eyes again. The rest, regrettably, is up to you. I will see you after you charge the horn on the dark moon. This will drain every ounce of its power till then.”
As his voice faded, I was back in my body. I immediately crammed the horn back in its sheath and closed my eyes. A ripple ran through me—very unpleasant, almost like a series of minor shocks, and then I was moving, the currents sweeping me forward. I did my best to maneuver into a swimming position. Though I couldn’t see, I knew precisely when I passed through the orb because it felt like a feather-light dusting of ash sprang up on my exposed skin, as though the very outer epidermis had been zapped. That should give me a rosy glow, I thought.
The next moment, I came to a halt.
“Open your eyes.” The whisper was so faint I almost missed it.
I opened my eyes to find myself staring up at K’thbar. He was huge—so huge it was hard to tell where he stopped. He was far taller than the ship, which meant that the sphere existed in another realm. And he was thrashing around. Waking up, damn it. I saw the spirit seal near his hand and lunged for it. The moment my hand closed over it, he let out a roar, and I frantically tried to hold onto the seal as the world shifted.
Remembering Eriskel’s instructions, I shut my eyes as tight as I could, praying that K’thbar wouldn’t step on me. The flash came, then, and I found myself jettisoned sideways, tumbling through the water as I desperately tried to hold on to the spirit seal. The next thing I knew, I was slamming through the wall of the ship. Thank gods the force of the explosion preceded me, because it lessened the impact, even though I still felt like I had hit a brick wall at full speed. Splinters of wood exploded out every which way as I tried to slow myself down. At least I was in the water and not in midair, I thought. And the ship had been stationary, not moving. Two pluses. I was upside down in the water, feet point
ed toward the surface—as far as I could tell—when a gentle arm reached out to steady me. A very big, very blue arm. I glanced up to see Shimmer, in her dragon form, holding me fast.
If not for the charm, I’d be breathing in water after being so abruptly jettisoned from the ship. As Shimmer held me, I began to calm down, her steady hand—claw?—giving me the support I needed to take stock of my condition. My ears were ringing. The explosion had been loud, but I could still hear over the buzzing. I glanced down at my legs and stomach, and Shimmer must have realized what I was doing, because she lifted me up to examine me, turning me over a couple times before gently letting me go. I couldn’t feel any major damage though the constriction of the suit might be dampening any pain, and apparently, she couldn’t either, because she pointed toward the surface and motioned for me to swim up. I had just started to when she stiffened, her long, Nessie-like body evening out. She didn’t have fins, like the Loch Ness monster, but she looked very much like an Asian dragon with smallish wings, arms, and legs.
I swam around to see what she was looking at and immediately began backing away, heading toward the surface like she had directed me to. K’thbar had shot out of the boat after me, and he was now fully awake. Now, he was the size of Shade and Shimmer—and I could fully see what he looked like. He was the color of Concord grapes, and his body was long and fish-like, with tentacles that flared out from his neck area like a squid. Also like a squid, he had a sharp, large beak, only it was hooked like that of a bald eagle. His eyes were luminous—glassy pools of black with sparkling white pupils—and he looked angry.
Holy hell, I thought. K’thbar was so big he could devour me whole. Or snap me in half with his razor-sharp beak. There was no way in hell we could fight him, not with gardening forks and daggers. Not underwater, where we couldn’t move fast enough to get out of his way.
Shade and Shimmer seemed to realize the same thing, because they moved in, motioning for the others to get out of the way. I realized with relief that Trillian, Morio, Roz, and Vanzir were all okay, following me. If the blast had harmed them, it didn’t show. I kicked hard, aiming for the surface with them behind me. I tried to avoid the snarling fight that was going on below. I wanted to watch, to make sure the two dragons were all right, but if we stayed in the vicinity, K’thbar would catch us.